Artist Chris Shands stands beside a stack of her paintings, ready to go to their new homes.
For local abstract artist Chris Shands, it’s the part in the middle that is so much fun. She says that about painting, but it also could be said about her newfound joy in midlife as an empty nester and city dweller.
After living in the suburbs of Henrico County for 33 years of their marriage, Shands and her attorney husband, Tyler, moved to Kingcrest Parkway two years ago when youngest daughter Liza was a senior in college.
“I worried about how [Liza] would take it. Her room here is about a third of the size of her old room. But the other day, she said, ‘Mom, I love coming back to this house!’ ”
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Shands paints in a home studio just off of the living room. She keeps the canvas that launched her career hanging on the wall as a reminder of her artistic journey.
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A painting by Richmond artist Sunny Goode over the mantel is a colorful focal point in the living room, which features neutral furnishings. Shands’ studio runs along the space beside it — though she says she’ll often pull her easel into the living room if she needs to view a painting in progress in different light.
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Shands’ dog Bremo keeps her company in this cheery office space at one end of her studio.
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Shands’ dog Finn waits patiently for a treat in the kitchen, recently updated by Graeber Homes with paint, countertops and fixtures. The Turkish rug in the kitchen is from Verve Home Furnishings.
It’s no wonder. The 1931 painted-brick Colonial home is tucked into a tree-lined block, yet filled with sunlight, light-colored furnishings and bright pops of color — much of the latter provided by the artist’s own paintings. And everywhere there are interesting things to admire, textiles to rub between your fingers, photographs to study, groups of objects where the eye lingers.
Shands welcomes guests into her home often, as she and Tyler find more time to entertain now that they are city folk. And she’s as comfortable in her own skin as in the home where she lives.
“After my kids grew up, I knew it was time to get serious about what I loved to do,” Shands says.
Though Shands was a school teacher for many years, she’ll tell you that the creative parts of that work — creating classroom bulletin boards and art projects to tie in with lessons — were her favorites. Putting that career on hold while she raised her girls, she painted children’s clothes, then made pottery for 15 years. Shutting the door on art for a while, she felt the need to “get out there with people” and went to work at Ruth & Ollie in Carytown for eight years, where she got to employ a different side of her creativity.
“Then one day,” Shands says, “a visual merchandiser for Saks Fifth Avenue [where I also worked part time] gave me this huge 48-by-48-inch canvas from the warehouse and said, ‘Paint.’ ”
That very first painting hangs in her studio today as a reminder of an auspicious start.
Shands’ studio is a long, narrow area off the living room that the former owners used as a sunroom. Here are built-in bookshelves, canvases in progress, paint, paintbrushes and a desk. The studio workspace sometimes spills over into the living area as Shands moves her work around to see how a painting looks in different light.
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A breakfast room located between the kitchen and the family room overlooks the patio. Light coming in through French doors illuminates the space. A round table offers a cozy spot to eat, while a Saddlemans hide rug provides softness underfoot; both pieces are from Ruth & Ollie, where Shands has worked off and on for more than eight years. White plates by Juliska, from Fraiche on the Avenues, add subtle decorative interest around the doorway to the family room.
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The family room continues the neutral palette, but this time with accents of blue. Two pieces of Shands’ art adorn the far corner of the room, adding a grounding note of black to the space. Pillows on two armchairs also feature Shands’ designs.
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The Shands’ classic Colonial was built in 1931. She says the lot on this tree-lined street feels like even more of an oasis than the family’s previous home in the suburbs.
“The interior of my home serves as inspiration for my creativity,” she says. Neutral walls are a blank canvas for her own work and the work of other artists. “I enjoy rotating artwork from room to room. It allows me to view it in a different context.”
Shands considers herself “lucky” to own works by artists such as Rhonda Corley, Teil Duncan, Leigh Gordon, Frankie Slaughter and Alison Cooley. “Their work motivates and challenges me to keep painting and growing as an artist,” she says.
Shands’ family lived in Bangkok for the first nine years of her life, then Brussels, Copenhagen and New York, so signs of her international soul — most of them from Thailand — are evident throughout the home. Next to the living room sofa is an antique Thai temple drum that belonged to Shands’ parents. Chairs her mother bought in Hong Kong flank a side table. Resting on a book about Thailand are Thai silver cigarette boxes.
Not everything is imported, however. The faux tortoiseshell and gilded-iron coffee table in the living room was a Verve Home Furnishings find, and in the family room are bargains from Home Goods — Midcentury Modern light blue chairs that her daughters are already vying for. The palette in the vaulted family room is also neutral but this time with soothing blue accents. This color scheme carries out into the courtyard garden that Tyler tends.
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Shands and her dogs often spend time in the back garden, where many plantings were already in place when the couple bought the home. In summer, the sun-loving space is filled with tidy displays of peonies, baptisia, hydrangea, purple and white coneflowers, Shasta daisies, lamb’s ears, and some of Shands’ mother’s boxwoods.
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The bright and cheery dining room features a table and chairs by Oly Studio from Ruth & Ollie on a rug from Green Front Furniture in Farmville. Art by Alison Cooley, from the Page Bond Gallery, fills one wall, and a bench beneath offers pull-up seating for big family dinners.
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A piece by Shands with metallic notes hangs over a Bliss Studio demilune table from Ruth & Ollie, creating an artful vignette in a corner of the dining room.
No major renovations were needed when the couple moved in to the house. However, Shands hired Graeber Homes for a kitchen refresh. The cabinets were repainted white, brushed brass pulls were added, the countertops replaced with quartzite, and a gas stovetop with dual range oven was installed.
“My home is my sanctuary,” Shands says. “I am very much a homebody, and I enjoy being surrounded by my favorite objects, photographs and heirlooms. They are happy memories of family, friends and travels to faraway places.”
